Pontius Pilate: The Unjust Judge

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

As a lawyer and judge, my understanding of the Bible has naturally become colored by my experiences in, and knowledge of, the law and the legal system. Thus, in meditating on the gospel accounts of Christ’s interaction with Pontius Pilate, my focus in recent years has been on Pilate’s role as judge. I must confess that in the past it never occurred to me that Pilate was a judge. Yes, I understood that Pilate was the prefect of Judea and that he was the chief Roman official charged with implementing Roman law¯and, indeed, that he ultimately sat in judgment of Christ. Nevertheless, I did not think of Pilate as a judge¯certainly not in the sense that most people have thought of judges for hundreds of years¯wearing judicial robes, sitting in a courtroom, relying on precedent. After all, Roman law was not common law, and the main point of the gospel stories in regard to Pilate’s dealings with Christ is not that Pilate treated him unjustly but that Christ, who died an ignominious death, was completely blameless.

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Pontius Pilate: The Unjust Judge